Kim, Lucas and I spent the Memorial Day Weekend visiting a new city, Milwaukee. It was our first time also visiting the state of Wisconsin. I wrote about our first day in Milwaukee last week and now it’s time to write about our second day.

Here are some of the things we did:

• Milwaukee Art Museum opening
• Discovery World Museum
• Cheese Mart
• River Walk- Fonzie Statue
• Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery
• Maders Restaurant
• Leon’s Custard

Milwaukee Art Museum

We didn’t stop by the Milwaukee Art Museum to check out the art. We visited to see the “wings” open up. The wings are called the Burke Brise Soleil, “a moveable, wing-like sunscreen that rests on top of the Museum’s vaulted glass-enclosed Windhover Hall”.

The wingspan is comparable to a Boeing 747-400

Seeing the wings open up was a really impressive sight to see. I’d definitely recommend stopping at the museum just to check out this quick show. The wings open at 10am, close/reopen at noon and close at 5pm (8pm on Thursdays).

Trying to make music at Discover World

Cheese

There was no way that we could visit Wisconsin without tasting some cheese. We stopped by Cheese Mart to do some sampling. We also took a couple of varieties home. They had about 6-7 different kinds of cheese to sample including beer cheddar, tomato basil cheddar (which we bought), salsa cheddar, an aged sharp cheddar, roasted red pepper jack (bought this too) and a few others.

You can also go next door for cheese & meat plates and local beers. If we didn’t get so many samples, this would’ve definitely been something to consider.

Bronze Fonz

While reading into Milwaukee, I came across a quirky statue that I had to visit.

The “Bronze Fonz” is located along the Riverwalk. The statue (kind of) resembles Henry Winkler, Fonzie from the TV show Happy Days. A few other people stopped by to check out the statue while we were there. Lucas thought it was really funny watching us act silly near the statue so I’ll consider it a kid- approved site.

Best Place at the Historic Pabst Brewery

Although the Pabst Brewery hasn’t brewed beer in many years, I still wanted to stop by. Some sections of the brewery are now a bar and gift shop called Best Place. Just seeing the brewery from the outside was impressive- it looked like an old castle. The gift shop felt a bit like a museum since some items being sold were from the old brewery and possibly limited or one of a kind. The bar/ beer garden was pretty busy and lots of beers were available. We decided to stick with a PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) in honor of our visit!

Lucas’ chair at Mader’s

Milwaukee is known for its German heritage and it is well represented on Old World Third Street. There are various restaurants as well as Usinger’s a sausage & meats store. Many of the restaurants serve Usinger’s sausage so we stopped in Mader’s to try some out.
Mader’s is probably the most famous German restaurant in town according to the tourism board. It has a medieval feel inside with lots of old armor and weapons hanging on the walls. The restaurant has also served many famous people including musicians, actors and presidents.

We didn’t eat a big meal here but the sausages we ordered were very good and seemed very authentic.